By david Akinmola
Located on Gerald Road in the city’s prosperous Ikoy district, the building is a construction site for luxury homes. It is unclear how many people were inside when it fell.
“I thought it was an earthquake when I rushed out of my apartment just after 3:pm, I felt the building moving and I knew something was wrong,” Olu Apata, a resident and president of the Nigerian Bar Association, said.
Apata explained that the building has been under construction for the past two years and that the developer was in a meeting with potential buyers earlier Monday.
Three people have since been rescued from the collapse, according to a statement from the Lagos state government, which added that the city’s rescue unit, fire brigade and ambulance were present.
The statement did not say how many people are currently missing.The cause of the collision is still being investigated and the authorities on site are assessing possible damage to the surrounding buildings, the statement said.
Muhammad, an official, told news men, he was in his neighborhood office when a high-rise apartment building collapsed. “We just heard an unusually loud noise from our office building and the building we live in shook. So I looked out the window, just saw the building collapse floor by floor. And of course we all ran to safety.”
It took a while for the rescue department to arrive on the scene. Hours after the collapse, hundreds of people milled around and helplessly examined the piles of concrete slabs piled up. The locals dug through the wreck by hand. Some of the crowd were furious that no official relief had been started.
Instead, rescue operations were carried out by passers-by such as Rashid Olamileka, had pulled three construction workers from the rubble. “I am a Nigerian. I have to save my people,” he said. The rescued workers had been taken to hospital, Olamileka added.
The collapse buildings is not uncommon in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city with a population of about 20 million people.
In 2019, the collapse of two separate buildings, one with a school, killed dozens of people.
The expert told our reporter that more than 1,000 buildings were in danger of collapsing in Lagos.
Meanwhile, Lagos State Governor, Bababjide Sanwo-Olu, has ordered an immediate investigation into the unfortunate building collapse in Lagos.
According to a statement by the state Commissoner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, Governor Sanwo-Olu has ordered an immediate investigation into the incident with the aim to determine cause(s) of the incident with the aim of preventing possible future occurrences.
The state government, therefore, called for calm over the building collapse.
“Governor Sanwo-Olu has ordered an investigation into the incident.
“The General Manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency, Arch. Gbolahan Oki, was also at the scene assessing the site for any likely damage to the surrounding structures.
“A report of the investigations will be made public in due course,” Omotoso assured citizens.
On the wide circulated death of the developer, Farinloye told Vanguard that the circumstances at the scene of the building collapse made it difficult for emergency officials to ascertain if the developer of the was trapped or not.
“Members of the public should be patient and allow us to continue our findings. The true state of the developer will be made public at appropriate time,” he stated.
Meanwhile, some concerned residents have heaped the blame on the state government for not been proactive to prevent the disaster from happening.
At the scene of the incident, a middle aged man, who simply identified himself as, Ajayi, lamented, describing the “ugly incident as preventable.”
“Why do government always wait for disasters to happen before taken steps. With all the multiple building control agencies and ministry, yet this magnitude of waiting disaster could not be detected let alone prevented.
“This is one too many. Mr Bababjide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State should wake up and live up to his responsibility of protecting lives of citizens.
“It has always been fire brigdage approach to managing disasters in this state. For example, the defects in this 21 21 storey building should have been detected if government knows what they are doing.
This absolutely unacceptable.”
Also, Mrs Margret Akpan, a residents on the Island who was at the scene, appealed to relevant authorities to take more pragmatic steps in safeguarding lives and Properties of residents rather than waiting for loss of lives before taking action.
“Government should jettison this belated disaster response to a more pragmatic steps. Look at the lives wasted today which should have been avoided if right steps were taken by government. This is so sad. My condolences to the families of the deceaseds.”
